Thulsoma/Annals Of History
Contents
The Arrival of Lady Haruka Vanimedle
Lady Haruka Vanimedle, having been exiled from her beloved realm of the Dark Isle, set upon a spiritual journey of sorts, from which she managed to procquire a multiple of rare and valuable Anglo Saxon relics, one of which was the only existing copy of the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, a historical recollection of the great Saxons of the Saxon Stormland's and their heptarchy. It was then that Haruka departed her current lands, taking the Knights Of Holy Iron Chains (Her own personal army of elites and zealots) and other supporters to the continent of Dwilight, relatively young and still in the middle of a civilised colonisation. The Stormland's being located in the far north of Dwilight. She and her supporters arrived in Thulsoma, in a time where Thulsoma was abandoned by the majority of its former nobility, truly an act of fate to allow Haruka to rise to eminent rule. Almost immediately upon her arrival, the peasants, the nobility and the Folkmoot that ran Thulsoma in the absence of higher nobility anointed Haruka as their spiritual and governmental ruler, thus began the Saxon reformation of Thulsoma.
This was met with immediate opposition, as first from the Libero Empire, who had scared of the cowardly, former nobles of Thulsoma into fleeing their very lands. Seeing this new and powerful government, their King immediately entered dialogue with the new government of Thulsoma, Libero Empire having planning to take these lands unopposed to spread their dominion. The talks went amicable enough, but it soon became apparent he would accept nothing less than the regions under his control at any cost, due to some delusion of a birthright over these lands. Further opposition came from the real of Xinhai who seeing a new government in Thulsoma, were quick to begin telling Thulsoma what to do, this was of course met with contempt by the ruling government, and Xinhai was soon they would be afforded no influence in Thulsoma except that which they are granted by the Storm Mistress, this later became a main point of animosity between Thulsoma and Xinhai, and by extension Sanguis Astroism. The latter due to the corrupt oligarchy which ruled the great hegemony of Sanguis Astroism, as Thulsoma posed no threat to their religion, and allowed its worship and temples in the Stormland's.
The war with Libero Empire
Lady Haruka tried many times in which to bargain peace with the King of Libero Empire, Sejieda Vita, after much painstaking diplomatic talks, it became apparent that he was merely stalling for time. Fearing the eventual invasion by the Liberite armies, the Knights Of Holy Iron Chains ordered an archery raid into Torrents Breath, the result of which was a loss for Thulsoma, and just about one of the few losses they ever suffered in the war. King Sejieda realising his opportunity, claimed foul, claiming that an unofficial ceasefire had been agreed to and that this was in breach of it. What followed was a long an arduous public debate, which eventually ended in the agreement to reopen diplomatic talks. Lady Haruka requested that the war be resolved with a duel of honour, to avoid unnecessary bloodshed and warfare that the war would create, and to show that no Saxon leader should ever hide behind armies, or other nobles, but rather face their opponents in person. King Sejieda swore an oath to settle this war in a duel, after more than a month of wait, Thulsoma accepted that King Sejeida had broken his oath to Lady Haruka, and that war should commence, and then a Saxon campaign launched into Torrents Breath. King Sejieda, the rather voluminous in terms of public discourse, once again claimed foul, what followed was yet another heated and public debate between ForÞwíf Heofonþrym Haruka, and King Sejieda. Perhaps foolishly, it once again ended in peace talks, being forever the optimist willing to compromise Haruka agreed. Eventually the talks boiled down to an agreement of peace, which was not to last long. ForÞwíf Heofonþrym Haruka had told King Sejieda three times that she would be taking the region of Valldir and even on one occasion, asked King Sejeida if it would be breaching the peace treaty if she were to authorise the take over of Valldir, on all counts he refused to say otherwise. The Knights Of Holy Iron Chains soon began a take over of Valldir, upon seeing this, King Sejeida once again screamed foul, leading to yet another massive public debate but this time the Thulsoman's refused to enter peace talks, and the Liberite's demanded Gold pieces in which to even begin diplomatic talks, a great act of dishonour on their part.
This war was one of great humiliation for Libero Empire, aside from a single victory against Thulsoma in Storms End, Libero Empire lost every single battle and a majority of all skirmishes. A tiny, stalwart realm of Saxon defenders behind their capital managed to crush the liberite's in two sieges in Storms Keep, multiples full scale battles in Storms End and Torrents Breath, it was becoming apparent to Libero Empire, that by war alone, they would be overwhelmed and destroyed by the elite Knights Of Holy Iron Chains.
The religious riots
In mid June of the first year of ForÞwíf Heofonþrym Haruka's rule, a Priestess by the name of Elsebeth, a strongly disliked Liberite noble entered the Stronghold under the pretences of peace. Previously ForÞwíf Heofonþrym Haruka had ordered her arrest, but due to talks with the Archon of Xinhai, she consented to allow her presence in the Stronghold. A grave mistake. Up until this point Thulsoma had been easily deflecting Liberite invasion and seemed set to hold out for months with ease, when the Torenist, King Sejieda, realised this, he manipulated the Priestess into filling the hearts and minds of the Thulsoman peasantry with corruption and hatred, using the hallucinogenic Bloodmoon fruit to further infect them with madness. The Priestess then demanded the Star worshippers charge the palace and try to throw Queen Haruka out, the soldiers of Thulsoman quickly rallied in defence of their believed Queen, when the first wave failed, slaughtered, Priestess Elsebeth called for another wave of crazed peasants to attack, when this failed, she raised another, only to be captured. Because of her more than Two Thousand peasants lay dead, a majority of the populous of Storms Keep with many soldiers also dead. Storms Keep, which had been set to hold out for months now seemed ruined at the hands of this single Priestess, doing the bidding of a greedy Torenist (Torenism, ironically being the arch enemy of Sanguis Astroism) ForÞwíf Heofonþrym Haruka had agreed to keep the Astroist temples intact previously, though now it was clear that they could not be allowed to. When she spoke of this mass slaughter of Star Worshippers under the orders of a Torenist they closed their eyes and held hands over their ears, to see no evil, hear no evil and refused to believe such a slaughter happened. The Priestess was then placed in the hands of the Ministry Of Torture where she was tortured repeatedly, everyday, until her eventual escape.
The foundation of Hrēdmōnath
In such testing times of death and despair in the Stormland's, Lady Haruka could only divinate such horrid atrocities as the work of the Déaþgodas. As punishment for the fact Thulsoma did not honour its Déaþgodas in temples and proper public worship, but allowed Sanguis Astroism to have the freedoms of worship and temples within their lands. Though, the Déaþgodas do not test if they do not have greater plans for those they test, this was merely a great trial and test for Thulsoma and Lady Haruka, to see if they are worthy, to remind them of that penitence was needed for their sins, to reaffirm them in their faith and set them on the righteous and holy course. Lady Haruka became the official founder Hrēdmōnath, a religion dedicated to the worship of the Déaþgodas and honour.
Soon after the great founding of the religion, Libero Empire lost large scale battles in Storms End, Torrents Breath and even Mount Black Nastrond and also they suffered a horrendous defeat in Storms Keep, where they barely managed to shave of 200 Cs from the defenders, despite loosing more than 4,000 Cs of their own and a much stronger and larger attacking force, at this point it became apparent that Libero Empire would barely last months against Thulsoma, as soon the bottleneck of Mount Black Nastrond would be conquered, however fate would not allow this. Two men died from the Take Over unit, stopping the ability to create a take over in the region, this cumulated into one of the biggest "missed chances" of the war. Thulsoma, after the religious riots, had gone down to a single region realm of eighty peasants, but even then Libero Empire stood no chance as the brave Saxon defenders even with the great limits placed upon them, raised an army of equal strength to that of Libero Empire's, over 6,000 CS in mobile forces, a great feat, making Thulsoma stronger than all other small realms in Dwilight, and on par with most medium sized realms.
Sanguis Astroism's declaration of war
In response to their continued war of aggression against Thulsoma, Sanguis Astroism declared total war, ordering the "Warders Of The Temples" to attack Thulsoma, a contingent made up entirely of Priests. What followed was a brutal sort of warfare, as the Priests incited their followers to riot and fight against the troops of Thulsoma, wave after wave irregardless of casualties they suffered, eventually all Priests responsible were captured, and punished brutally for their heinous crimes and sins. Sanguis Astroism then claimed victim once again, acting as if their auto de facto war was one of self defence, not unwarranted aggression against Thulsoma. In response, Thulsoma disbanded all Sanguis Astroism temples and outlawed the worship of the Bloodstar's in Saxon lands.
| Letter from Haruka Vanimedle | |
| Message sent to Message sent to everyone in Thulsoma | |
| My loyal Saxons,
It seems that Sanguis Astroism, in its continued and unwarranted aggression against the fabric of Thulsoma's existence, they have declared our faith, nay our entire people and culture evil for a variety of baseless and substance-less accusations, many of which pertain to our faith, though, we were already deemed evil before our faith was founded, they merely seek to make it seem official. So from this point on, I feel in the interests of Thulsoma, and to protect our Saxon's from Astroist aggression, Sanguis Astroism is henceforth banned from Thulsoma, all temples have had demolition orders placed upon them, any and all acts of worship to the "Bloodstar's" are outlawed as is any harbouring of sympathies to the "Bloodstar's". Thulsoma shall continue its policy of pluralism and religious freedoms, however after many months of an undeclared war from Sanguis Astroism, penultimately ending within an open declaration of war against this religion is deemed incompatible with Thulsoma, our Saxon morals and the very notions of honour. This is not a religious war on the part of Thulsoma, however it shall be one on their part, as ignorance wins the day as far as they are concerned. Any Astroist priests are to be arrested immediately if they enter our lands, as are any worshippers of Sanguis Astroism who are not of allied descent. I realise that with my open banishment of this faith, Sanguis Astroism shall try to claim victim, to spread their misconception that this has all been one attack after another by Thulsoma, however, regardless of the diplomatic consequences this is the righteous thing to do. When I arrived here in Thulsoma and proclaimed your spiritual and governmental leader I swore my oath to this realm and its people, I would be breaching that oath to allow such a breach of Thulsoma sovereignty and safety by allowing a continued war by Sanguis Astroism against our very people. I further realise, that this entire situation is one of my own creation, I dared to bring freedom to the Saxon's of Thulsoma, the very concept that the Bloodstar's are not the only faith one is allowed to have is something Sanguis Astroism can never stand to exist. I have protected their temples, their faithful, the ultimate result of which was the Astroist Army, the Warders of Their Temples leading nearly 5,000 of their very faithful to mass slaughter, and a continued isolation and auto de facto war against their own followers. From this we can discern the very nature of Sanguis Astroism, the mark of their people, they conquer and convert by the sword, and they treat their followers as expendable pawns, even their priests and nobles, all a means to an end to spread their tyrannical hegemony over these lands, they could not stand the fact their was a single ruler within their reach, who did not bow to some celestial Star's that cannot even be seen in the sky, we saw that most poignantly in the war against Aquilegia most recently, and now we shall see it as the Star gazers sacrifice tens of thousands more of their own, merely to usurp a rightful Saxon government that posed no threat to them, that allow their existence and worship. They brought their very own nightmare situation into a reality through their repeated callous acts against us and their own. I hope you shall continue to support me, as your ForÞwíf Heofonþrym, your Tyrant Mistress of the Storms, as your beloved Heofon and Mistress, so that we may stand together against the inexorable scourge that seeks to immolate our culture, put every Saxon to the sword and wipe our religion from the very pages of history. Dréor ond árweorþrung! For sum hérespel gesig innan ælíf líchryre déadlicnes Ond úre rihtwísnes wiðerian! | |
| Haruka Vanimedle (Lady Haruka Vanimedle' Heofonþrym of Hredmonath and Mistress Of Torture of Thulsoma, Duchess of Storms Keep, Marshal of the Knights Of Holy Iron Chains) | |
